Wednesday 15 August 2018

Future of Mario Kart - Crossing Over For Crossovers [Gaming]



Last time, I talked about characters, and said that since crossover content would take up more than just characters, it would be separate. Now I’m here to talk about all that content.

Characters make up the largest part of this crossover content, as what came before will almost certainly be included in a new game and added to. Remembering from the Future of Mario Kart post on characters last month, I’d left light characters at 15, with both medium and heavy at 14. If we now add in the crossover characters, Isabelle brings the light total to 16, Villager and Inkling bring the medium total to 16, and Link brings the heavy total to 15.

Now, Kirby is easy pickings for a new light character, as is Pikachu. I don’t question how a Pokémon learnt to drive, as technically Toads can’t and Baby characters shouldn’t. Captain Falcon I am putting into the heavy class, along with Samus. R.O.B. – the Robotic Operating Buddy who starred in Mario Kart DS – is technically a crossover character, and is the final heavy for the list. As for medium characters, Fox and Ness fill the two remaining spaces. Miis – if this next Mario Kart game came to Switch – would fill out a slot in each class.

Away from characters, the second largest part are the karts they race in, and I think it would be a bad move to remove the wealth of parts that have grown throughout the years. One thing I’m not so sure on though, is that customisability needs to remain on the selection screen. Instead, that moves to a garage section where you can mix and match parts that get unlocked.

As for the crossover content in karts, there’s the Blue Falcon and Streetle. For bikes, there’s the City Tripper and the Master Cycle (and the Zero equivalent). For ATVs, there’s the Splat Buggy and Inkstriker. There’s Triforce, Leaf, and Ancient wheels, with Hylian Kite, Paper Glider, and Paraglider in gliders. The Triforce Wheels and Hylian Kite go with the Master Cycle. The Leaf Wheels and Paper Glider go with both the Streetle and City Tripper. Ancient Wheels and Paraglider go with the Master Cycle Zero.

That leaves the two Splatoon ATVs and the Blue Falcon for vehicles without wheels or gliders, and I’m going to give them that. The Splatoon ATVs get curling bombs for wheels and a Splat Brella as a glider. The Blue Falcon gets a Falcon Wing glider – which is the logo from the Captain’s helmet. Wheels don’t really matter with this kart, as they aren’t visible, but just to have a full set of F-Zero gear I’m taking the colour scheme of another veteran F-Zero racer and making the Wild Goose Wheels.

For the new franchises coming in, it would be easy to say that Kirby uses his warp star as a vehicle, but that becomes a glider, with the dragoon air ride machine being the vehicle with the Wheelie enemy becoming the wheels. For Pikachu, and you might think it a tad unoriginal, a kart based on Ivysaur with the wheels based on Squirtle’s shell and a glider based on Charizard. There is some room to change that around, but that set-up is the one I’m using.

Fox gets an Arwing glider with an ATV based on the Walker configuration and wheels from the Assault Landmaster. I’m less familiar with the Metroid and Earthbound series, so I’m not going to try creating a vehicle set for either of those. Having a Metroid as a glider would be fun, though. As for R.O.B., it’s robots unite, as a vehicle set would consist of Custom Robo and Chibi-Robo gear.

As for tracks, it’s easy to say that those who never had a track get one. Kirby, Pokémon, Metroid, and Earthbound tracks make up one cup. For Star Fox, I’m basing the track on Corneria – however predictable that may be. It’s the flagship of the Starfox series, so it makes sense to use. Now, away from the featured franchises, there’s three that can be combined into a marathon track such as N64 Rainbow Road or Big Blue. It starts on a mountain styled after the 1080 series, then launched into the air for a section similar to Pilotwings, though a short one as a Wave Race-inspired section is up next.

For the last two crossover races, since Splatoon had a battle arena last time, I’m putting in an actual race track for a new game. There’s plenty of opportunities to create a wild track from various solo campaign levels, or even create a winding track through one of the multiplayer arenas – perhaps even while a fight is going on. The last one would be a new Animal Crossing track based on the new game if it has released by the time a new Mario Kart is ready to release. Using more of the area would be good, such as a multi-tiered village to include a gliding section which would lead to the river which would wind to the beach allowing access back to land.

As for battle stages, I was thinking of one based on either the Wars or Fire Emblem series. For Wars, I was thinking of a recreation of a small map from Advance Wars in the style of Battalion Wars. It would have a small beach area with an underwater section, a small collection of buildings and a small forest on the opposite side. Surrounding all this would be mountains to mark the battle arena. As for Fire Emblem, roughly the same thing but styled after the new game Three Houses.

I don’t think crossover items need to be added, and as such will leave it here. Next time will be the last of these, and as such the topic won’t be revealed yet.


Future of Mario Kart Series